Bloodied Bell
by The Musings of a Muse
Summary: The Don Krieg Pirates; terrorists of the seas. I'm not one of them. I just want to be the strongest. I want to be the best. And they ARE the best. That is, until I met the Mugiwaras. Forgive me, my friends. I'll be betraying you in hopes of making my own dreams come true. I will be better than my sister. Better than the government. All I want is the find the best of the best.


**I do so ever vehemently deny that I own One Piece**

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It had started the seventh day after they had crossed the Grand Line. The only day that the skies were clear, the only day that wasn't hellish; full of storms and sickness; the seventh day. The Don Krieg Pirates had just recently come in contact of a map of the Grand Line, supposedly leading them straight to the One Piece, yet they had never gotten there. Half way through their journey, the first mate of the second fleet of one hundred boats and over a thousand men, left hand woman to Don Krieg, and the sharpest pair of eyes and best look out in the entire fleet, Katiah "Kurogane Neko*" Ryurakku, was the first one to notice the threat; a single man on a raft. Opening her mouth to sound the alarm after seeing the glint of a long sword strapped to the maroon-coated man's back, Katiah never got the chance to utter a word.

A sharp uplift from the lone man's head and Katiah was frozen to the wooden planks of the crow nest that she called home. Cold, calculative eyes scanned her own silver ones, narrowing when they found something that they disagreed with there. Slowly, almost lethargically, the man raised his arm, and the next thing Katiah knew, a sword appeared from her abdomen, piercing her straight through. A rush of wind followed the initial pain, too shocked to scream, Katiah dry heaved air into her lungs, fighting to get the air she so desperately needed. Dropping the golden scope she had been holding while looking over the nighttime horizon at the moon-reflecting water, Katiah felt the presence following the wind, an eerie predatory like aura wafted off of the bare chested man, his yellow eyes focused on a point behind her, for Katiah faced the sea and the inhuman like man the stern of the proud sea ship. Putting a hand down near the blood soaked area in her stomach a whisper of air tickled her ear and the uneasy in which had settled since seeing the man increased tenfold.

"Remember this, 'lil cat, my name is Dracule 'Hawkeye' Mihawk, and I'm sparing you so you can watch the rest of your crew disappear. There's something I don't like about you, Black Cat, and I'll be waiting for you to come find me when you know what it is." And with that, a gut wrenching scream reverberated through the entire second fleet's flagship, making heads turn and people draw their swords, there was only one woman on their venture, and to elect a scream like that from the famed Kurogane Neko of The Don Krieg Pirates was next to impossible. The ringing of the scream seemed to echo along the very air of the ship, ringing like a bell tolling the sound of death for all those that heard; their very own banshee to signal the end for their very short but prosperous pirating careers.

Withdrawing his sword from the slumped-over girl's body, Mihawk extended his arm, twisting his crimson soaked sword in a tightly controlled manner that forced her glistening blood from the blade. Taking one last glance at the porcelain skinned girl, Mihawk again frowned, he didn't like this girl one bit, she was familiar, almost too much so, with how her inky rivulets of black hair fell clear past her shoulder blades, like a familiar stain of black night against her earthy, worn tones of the corseted vest that wrapped under her bust and covered the skin of her shoulder in a tank-top like strap. The vest covered a now-crimson stained, worn cotton white shirt that wrapped around her shoulders and hugged her wrists and ballooned out at the cuffs, her vest stopped at her midriff, the white, blood soaked under shirt going to her waist. Her black pants ballooned out, a braided red belt around her waist with a several little black silver bells woven into the fringe that came off of the belt that was tied on her right side. A single carven steel blade rested in a faded and battered silver sheath, another single bell hung off of the top end of the sword guard; an elegant four pointed black star.

The fluttering of fabric drew Mihawk's attention from the fallen girl's figure, back to the men that were preparing to fight for their ship and their fallen first mate. Said first mate's black hat with a Russian blue, silver striped feather fluttered, head over heels, to the floor of the deck. Mihawk had wiped out the entire second fleet of the Don Krieg Pirates before the hat touched the deck, not a minute later.

"Hey, hey! Kurogane, get up, Kurogane!" Trying her best to blink back the lead-like feeling of sleep, Katiah opened her eyes slowly, hardly registering what was happening around her. She was on a boat, that much she could tell indefinitely. Rolling her head to the side, Katiah tried to draw in a deep breath, instead gasping as bright flashes of color and black dots danced in and out of her vision from what she would later remember as the second time since she fell unconscious.

Now wide awake, Katiah took in her surroundings, dark, dank walls of rotting and wet wood, were her ceiling, steel metal bars caked with neglected rust held her prisoner in the small room, and she found, that, as she moved, chains had been shackled on her wrists and ankles.

Turning back around to face her cell companion, Katiah was surprised to find the first mate of the first fleet, Gin. "G-Gin…W-where are we?" Still blinking blearily, Katiah swallowed past the thick and dry walls of her throat. Shaking her head, she once again tried to find something that would tip her off as to why and where she was. Then again, shackles were a good idea as to both.

"We got caught by the Marines. As far as I know, we're the only ones who survived the destruction of Mihawk's attack, and I wasn't even sure that you survived at first." Thoroughly confused, Katiah remembered the flash of pain that had first come to her body when she had woken up. Now thinking about the events of the night past, Katiah's silver eyes widened.

"Gin, how _am _I alive? I thought Mihawk pierced me through, _straight _through! Anyone with a wound such as that should have been dead!" Still facing her companion, Katiah watched the dark emotions flicker on her friend's face. There were several different ones, guilt, hurt, rage, surprise, and others that moved too fast for the girl to completely differentiate.

"I can't believe you were stupid enough to face a Shichibukai* alone!" Now deciding to glare at the second first mate, Gin silenced her now opened mouth and the retort that was sure to come out of it. "Even if he was only one man, facing him was stupid and reckless! I swear, if you weren't a first mate, I would give you a good lashing!" Stony faced, Katiah opened her mouth once more, fed up with the rebuke she was getting from her not-so-much superior.

"No, you mean that you would give me a good lashing if _you _hadn't been caught for your own fool-hardy act as well, isn't that right, Gin?" Now it was his turn to gape and silently stare at the black haired girl after losing his threatening glare. Now some-what curious as to what her closet nakama in the fleet had done, Katiah tilted her eyes downwards and tilted her head to the side, narrowing her black-slit silver eyes, Katiah scrutinized her nakama from her position to his right. After finding something in his guilt ridden gaze, Katiah slumped forward, heaving out a large sigh. Closing her eyes against the sudden headache that was forming above her temples, Katiah made a move to relieve the pressure with her shackled hands, the key word here being _shackled._ As she moved one arm, the other was yanked behind her. Pausing in her attempts to move her arms, she moved her eyes to look at the way the shackles were designed, getting a quick glimpse of Gin's grinning face. Experimentally, she yanked on her right arm, letting loose an exclamation of shock when she was yanked backwards to the wall, the impact her head made with the wood causing her headache to go from that to a migraine. "What the hell? Gin, what's up with these shackles?" Looking over at her nakama once again, she saw the tell-tale signs of his smirk still on his face.

"Oh, now I see why you're called 'neko'; curiosity killed the cat, ne?" Sputtering incoherently, Katiah whipped her head to her left, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her blushing face, though he was completely right about the whole 'neko' thing; she was _way _too overly curious about many things. Though she wasn't going to give him the knowledge that it was true.

"No! That's not the reason; it's because I can see better than most humans in the dark, so they called me a 'cat' for my amazing eye sight! Besides, Gin, you still haven't answered my question. What was your 'o-so-great blunder' that landed you – er, _us – _here? I have a feeling that the Marines didn't find me here on my own." Turning back to the 'Kijin no Gin' of the Don Krieg Pirates, she smirked at his discomfort, her unusually sharp canines poking out over her bottom lip. Thinking it over again, Katiah's smirk dropped for the umpteenth time that day. "Gin," her voice edged on a parental – maybe more sisterly? – tone. She knew of Gin's unwavering loyalty to Don Krieg, or maybe his fear of him. Though Katiah was a subordinate of that monstrosity as well, she had time and time started mutinies to try and over throw the tyrant. Gin had always been the one to put a stop to it, yet he was also the one to recommend that Katiah become the first mate of the second fleet. Her point of thought being that though she felt sympathy towards her brother-like figure and understood his loyalty to the tyrant pirate, she had never agreed with it.

"I dressed up as Don Krieg so he could have time to get away with the remnants of our fleet. Quite honestly, I was shocked when I heard the accounts about how you screamed, Kuro. To think, our very own little Kurogane Neko-hime would scream when receiving a wound, you've fallen, Kat." Katiah fumed silently to his right, this was another reason why she had been called 'neko', it was a pun on her name, KAT-iah, notice the extra emphasis on KAT.

Speaking of her wound, Katiah was severely confused as to why it wasn't causing her pain though she knew such a wound would definitely cause pain and more than likely, a near-death experience. Without voicing her concerns to the party next to her, Katiah looked down, prepared for the gruesome sight of an infected wound.

Gasping in surprise, Katiah snapped her head to look back at Gin, "Hey, Gin, why is your jacket tied around my wound?" Ah, now they were back to the first question she had asked; the ever important fact of being alive. Shaking his head, Gin shifted his posture, to an – evidently – more comfortable position.

"Kat, what is the first rule of dressing a wound? You should know this. Your past _did_ deal with some shady types of things where you should know the basics of first-aid." Again dropping into a foul mood, Katiah looked back down to her abdomen, poking at the silver jacket that was wrapped tightly around her waist. She knew about her past, as did a select few from the Krieg Pirates, such as Gin, but that didn't mean that she was proud of it.

"Yeah, I know that, but that still doesn't explain why it doesn't hurt like I know it should."

"Katiah, think here for a minute, we've both have our unfair share of brushes with death. Of course I know how to treat a wound without the correct medical supplies! Though it's a sloppy job and you might get an infection if I can't get them to give you the right treatment. Marines are so stubborn."

"Uh-huh. Says a pirate." Dead-panning, Katiah looked up from her poking and lazily gazed around her dank cell once more. "So, Gin, how long have we been on our venture for two?"

"I'd say we've been on this boat for about a day, we were on the flagship for roughly two or three, and I haven't eaten anything for a while, therefore you haven't either, I'm starving to the point where it's hard to move." Now that they were on the topic of food, Katiah now felt her stomach grumbling at the mention of food, though her mind remained queasy at the thought of putting any type of solid or liquid so close to a hole that went through her body completely. Yet after the thought of food was out of her mind, Katiah thought about the rest of the crew that was caught in Mihawk's attack; this sobered her up a good amount.

"Hey, Gin, do you think anyone else made it out? I mean, Krieg must have made it out along with the Dreadnaught, right?" Thinking of the main ship of the Don Krieg fleet, Katiah felt a sense of nostalgia, knowing that she may never see that ship again made it even worse. Though she couldn't care much for its captain – he hadn't been the kindest the only female aboard his venture – she was somewhat worried for the people she had grown fond of during the time she had spent on the Dreadnaught Sabre. They were all competent sailors and warriors, but even the sea could be harsh to her most caring of attenders, and this was the reason Katiah worried over her subordinate's fates.

"Ah, you wondered how the shackles were designed, right Kat? It's quite interesting actually, you see, there's these pulleys not far behind us, probably in that wall behind us, each shackle is tied in a loop to the other, making it so that when you pull on one—"

"Gin…how many people made it out?" Never hat Katiah seen such a guilty look on a person's face before; never had she seen such undiluted rage and anger; never had she seen a person age as fast as Gin did in that single minute. The lines on his face became more pronounced, deepening beneath his eyes and on his forehead. His cheeks seemed to become gaunt, even though he clenched his teeth in his anger. Dark purple bruises appeared under his eyes; the ultimate sign of complete exhaustion. He slumped forward, arms facing inward on his lap and head bent over downward.

"I really didn't want tell you this, Katiah, not so soon afterwards. Plus you got wounded so badly that I'm not sure how this will affect you, so try to stay still, ok?" Pestering aside, Katiah was a little worried. The only time Gin used her full name was when something serious was happening, or when she started to revert back to her old ways from the time in her past that she called the 'Unspoken'.

When Gin used her full name, it was always because he was too tired to even try to put up a front when calling her out. It was always because no matter how hard he tried, his past lives caught up to him. It was always because he finally felt the weight their lives carried with the others' he had ruined; for no life was equal to another.

"I-I'll be ok, Gin, I will. I just need to know what happened to them."

"I knew you would say that Katiah, I just knew you would say that…. They're all gone Katiah; every single one of them; gone, dead, disappeared. Your fleet went first, Katiah, and you were the very first person that he took down. I won't ever forget those screams; they ring in my ears and cry out to me! The water around us turned completely crimson, and the sunrise the next morning was the bloodiest I think I've ever seen. They still cried out and screamed, those who were still alive. There was complete agony and anguish everywhere I looked! Katiah, there were limbs floating in the water, blood soaked clothes riding every swell of the waves for miles! Mihawk was still attacking us well into morning; and by afternoon, we thanked whatever deity that was out there for the horrendous storm they sent to cover our passing, only the flagship got away, and all the men on it were wounded. It was horrible, Katiah. Absolutely horrible. It's impossible to explain with words how that occurrence felt, completely impossible." Gin had slowly been lifting his head throughout his recollection whilst Katiah listened on with rapt attention to the horrific tale he wove in front of her. When his eyes finally met hers, there was only one way to describe the look in his eyes; they were that of a haunted man.

Wide and bloodshot, the little red veins bulging from the mental pressure that they were subjected to, Gin's gray eyes were those of an elderly person, not those of a young pirate in his prime. His eyes were terrified; pupils widened so that barely a rim of his obsidian gray irises showed. They were drawn in and small, the whites of his eyes over riding any other color. They were truly the eyes of a haunted man.

Katiah's hand unconsciously moved down to her abdomen and began to trace circles around the point she knew the hole in her body should be. Every movement created dome type of pain; a slight jolt, a resounding pang, a lingering ache, even those ones where it felt like she was getting pierced through once again. Every single moment of pain helped her think, helped her mind clear away the haze that had come from Gin's words. Pain was clarity, and Lord knew that Katiah needed clarity at that moment.

She pressed harder into her stomach, trying to feel more of the sweet pain she knew was just behind her best friend's favorite jacket. She poked and jabbed, all the while ignoring that looks Gin threw her way, obviously warning her to stop before he made her do so.

"So, me. I was the first person to fall. That's interesting…" her tone of voice belayed the fact that she was extremely bothered by that truth that she had been unable to defend herself from a single person with her own weapon. An extra jolt of pain ran up her spine, and Katiah could dimly hear the screams from her fallen nakama. "I was the first to go…" Gin had looked back down into his lap, utterly defeated now that he didn't have to hold a cheerful front while facing his most trusted ally in his fleet.

"That's not all, Kat. I haven't even told you the scariest part yet."

She wasn't listening.

Katiah was focused on hearing that scream again; on hearing the screams from the comrades who had watched her fall before them; on the people who had seen her fall so easily and given up hope just in that second she had fallen; she wanted to hear the screams of those people who had put their trust in her and then subconsciously given their lives for her to govern; she had ripped it all away from them, yes, she wanted to hear those screams so very badly.

"I didn't deserve those lives! I didn't deserve to fall before them!" Mumbling to herself, she completely forgot the other presence in her cell, the person who knew the insanity that would befall her because of the truth he told. "I didn't deserve to take the easy way out! I should have dies before they did!" There was another press of pain, and the screams got ever louder, just as the dots dancing across her vision got ever darker.

"Yeah, the scariest part was definitely under that bloody sunrise, knowing that the entire sea had been stained crimson; it was the worst part of my career with Don Krieg…"

"I DIDN'T DESERVE NOT TO DIE! _THEY _DIDN'T DESERVE _TO_ DIE!"

She had pressed on her wound until she had sunk into the deep abyss of the screams she conjured up from her mind, and Gin knew she wasn't just referring to her crewmates any more. She had finally let out the insanity she had been holding inside of her since the end of her previous career. She had finally accepted the truth of the matter; she had killed off so many innocent lives to save her own. Going against her new motto; one life isn't of value for another. One soul cannot hope to be all another was. One heart cannot replicate all the feelings another had; one life is unable to be used for another.

"The scariest part…Was seeing that little silver bell reflecting the sunrise, turning it an unearthly color of red. The scariest part was seeing you lying on that piece of driftwood; that crimson bell in your hand. The scariest part…the scariest part…was seeing that red in your eyes. It was seeing your true nature come out when you're most venerable; that one I though was so far gone, was so far hidden; it was horrible; absolutely terrifying; to see Chimamire no Kane make her debut once again. You need to find people, Kat. People who can keep her under control," Tilting his head back, Gin took his companions example and closed his eyes to get some shut-eye, "because I highly doubt how much longer I'm going to be with you."

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**Well...this story wasn't meant to take a turn for the depressing...but it did. Ah, oh well. Things start to get interesting in the next two chapters, then it just gets better from there! So you guys have to deal with a very depressed Kitty-Kat for a while, ne?**

**Ok, that aside, I'm giving some power to the people here; should I change the story line a little and make Gin go with Katiah, or should he take of with Krieg again? 'Cause if you haven't guessed yet, this is the Baratie Arc, you know, when they meet Sanji and everything? So, yup~! Tell me what you think. I don't know if I'm even going to continue with this story or not...but I will if you guys like it enough! R&R PLEASE!**


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